Digital watchdog projects win support

Six of the 22 projects which won innovateAFRICA funding, will be implemented in Tanzania.

A million dollars in support has just been awarded to 22 digital journalism projects across the continent, 6 of which will be implemented in Tanzania.

“We’ve selected some of the brightest innovators in this space to experiment with leapfrog technologies, but the real focus is to help teams build real-world solutions to real-world problems that can immediately be adopted and scaled by mainstream media companies and civil society,” says innovateAFRICA founder Justin Arenstein.

The six projects to be implemented in Tanzania range from establishing a graphic journalism hub to real-time tracking of blast fishing using underwater microphones.

africanDRONE will establish ‘Africa’s first drone journalism hub’ in Tanzania, as a pan-African base camp for ‘certified drone journalists, mappers and storytellers.’

Blast Trackerwill ‘establish Africa’s first investigative sensor journalism initiative’ to track and map dynamite fishing blasts in real-time. When a blast is detected drone cameras will be deployed to track the boats involved.

CHECK will improve the PesaCheck fact-checking network (which verifies statements by public figures) in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda by implementing ‘a cloud-based workflow system and collaborative workbench.’

DollarStreet Africa will be implemented in Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania to ‘use photos as data to show how people on same income level live very similar lives.’